A number of attempts have been made in the prior art to increase the sound output of stringed musical instruments such as violins. Some of these techniques include the use of various forms of strips, ribs and bars as well as so-called "vibrative elements", such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,068,078 (Samuelson). The Samuelson patent discloses a stringed musical instrument wherein a plurality of such vibrative elements are disposed either inside or outside of the sound box at specific locations, and a vibration-damping bar is located between two groups of the elements with the ends of the bar spaced from the elements. In one embodiment, the bar extends through a groove in another one of the vibrative elements, the latter being glued to the bottom surface of the belly of the sound box. U.S. Pat. No. 1,671,532 (Lemansky et al) discloses a stringed musical instrument including a sounding bar made of two wooden pieces whose adjacent ends are enclosed by a sheet silver shell in which two ground glass bodies are loosely inserted. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,887,398 (Chase), a violin is disclosed which includes a sound bar that is enlarged at the junction of the neck and body of the violin. A sound bar having a plurality of holes therein is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 661,412 (Rowenthal).
While, in general, the sound bars and other techniques used in the prior art are considered to provide various degrees of sound enhancement, none of these techniques combines the kind of increase in sound volume with the simplicity in construction that is afforded by the present invention.